Adjudication No. 1024 (May 1999)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint from Geoffrey Reading against The Sydney Morning Herald over an article published on 3 December 1998 on the posthumous award of a high police honour to a detective who was sacked 27 years ago.

The detective, Philip Arantz, was fired for passing to the Herald in 1971 computer-based information allegedly showing that NSW crime clear-up figures had been falsified for years. This whistle-blowing exercise resulted, as well as his dismissal, in him being accused of being mad and spending three days in a psychiatric unit proving he was sane.

Mr Arantz, who died in March 1998 aged 68, never served again, although he was "notionally reinstated" in the police force in the 1980s and was given an ex-gratia payment of $250,000 but not a pension. His widow has now received on his behalf the Police Commissioner's Commendation for Outstanding Service.

In his complaint, Mr Reading disputes that the crime figures were falsified, or that the then police commissioner, NTW Allan, had seriously suggested that Mr Arantz was mad, or that the then police minister and premier, Sir Robert Askin, had "aided and abetted" Mr Allan in his attempts to discredit Mr Arantz.

The paper declares that Mr Reading, who is a former press secretary to Sir Robert Askin and well-known for his defence of Sir Robert's reputation, is wrong on all three points.

The arguments over the case have been canvassed many times in the media, and there seems little point in the Press Council attempting any ab initio re-assessment at this late stage. However, there are two salient points:

• Mr Allan took early retirement, allegedly forced to do so over the case, and Sir Robert Askin's reputation was tarnished.
  
  
• Mr Arantz was "notionally reinstated", received an ex-gratia payment of $250,000, and has been awarded posthumously the Commissioner's Commendation.

The Sydney Morning Herald was justified in publishing the story as it did. It is clear that today's appropriate authorities accept that Mr Arantz was seriously mistreated by those in charge in 1971; and at the head of those in charge were the then police commissioner, Mr Allan, and the then police minister, Sir Robert Askin.

Mr Reading further complains that the paper refused to publish a letter from him attempting to refute the statements made about Mr Allan and Sir Robert Askin. The paper answers that Mr Reading's defence of the Askin era is well known and has been well covered. Further, the paper -- and apparently the concerned authorities today -- has made its judgments and sees no reason to revise them.

The Press Council accepts that position.

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